Because Beauty!

Sephora Favorites Prime, Set, Go!

So when I was in the United States, Sephora came out with a lot of Sephora Favorites sets for the Holidays (that was not a coincidence, I wanted to be in the USA when the Holiday vibes were there, in general but also in the stores). As you know, I love the Sephora Favorites Give Me Some Lip sets and while in the USA, I purchased one of the mega lipsets and I am loving it! I totally wanted to pick up more sets with something other than lipstick, but I had to make a choice so I left it with the lipset.

For some reason I wasn’t into primers yet a few months ago and that made me not even notice the Sephora Favorites Prime, Set, Go! set. However, once returned in the Netherlands I started to appreciate and love primers, fixing sprays and setting powders more and more and at one point I discovered the Prime, Set Go! set and I fell in love. It was perfect (I’ll explain later why). But yeah, I wasn’t in the USA anymore and the set didn’t ship to the Netherlands so I had to forget it. However, what you can’t get is what you want (with make-up, that applies to me in every way possible, haha) so I turned to Ebay and fortunately I found a set for a reasonable price and it would be shipped directly to me. Happy me!

In this set are:
– two specific products I was dying to try,
– two products I read really awesome stuff about so I wasn’t mad about trying them,
– two products that I owned but finished and wanted to repurchase,
– two products I already owned in sample size and I was not mad about having a back-up because they are nice products.

Sounds like the perfect value box, right? I also really love that you get deluxe/sample sized products because this way you can try out different brands and products without needing years to finish them. This set has some bigger deluxe sized products (the Tarte spray, the Smashbox Primer water and the Laura Mercier Translucent Setting Powder) and two tiny samples (the Becca primer and Too Faced primer).

Usually a Sephora Favorites Set includes at least one full sized product but not in this set. I’m okay with that though, because you still get a good value from it!

These are the products I already tried before this set. The top four are from this set and the bottom four are the ones I already owned.

Becca First Light Priming Filter is a pretty watery, purple colored primer. It is supposed to give you a brighter complexion. Once applied, the purple color is not visible anymore. I do see that there’s a change in my complexion: it is definitely brighter. However, I do see some kind of colored glow that makes my face look a bit funny. The glow makes my skin look more healthy but at the same time there’s this colored glow (not clearly purple but there’s something) that makes my face looks a bit weird.

Therefore I think this primer is only nice if I apply a full face of foundation and/or concealer & powder, because otherwise I still see a bit of the funny color.

The primer feels fresh on the face, is easy to apply, sinks into the skin really fast and doesn’t leave any stickiness or residue on my face so regarding the formula, this primer is nice. The scent of it is not too strong and I feel like Becca tried to make it fresh, but there’s a funny scent underneath the freshness that I don’t really like that much. It’s okay though because it’s not strong, but I don’t like ‘sticking my nose in it’, haha.

So in general this primer is nice on the face and does brighten my complexion. The primer is really popular and I can see why (for a full face of make-up). It’s not my most favorite in this set though because I rarely wear foundation/full coverage make-up and the color-ish glow it gives my face without full coverage, is just not my thing.

The Too Faced Primed & Peachy Cooling Matte Perfecting Primer is my favorite product from the Too Faced Peach collection. I love how subtle the peachy smell is of this primer. The primer is indeed cooling (not even close as cold as the Origins primer though but it is soothing) and it feels really comfortable on the skin. The slight peachy color gives the skin a bright and smooth look.

When make-up is applied on top of this primer, it all looks fine to me! It doesn’t necessarily look more matte, but it surely does not look shiny or oily. So I guess the primer does what it promises!

The only thing I don’t like so much about this primer is the consistency. This primer is pretty thick and in order to actually have it give it’s smoothing effect on my skin, I really have to blend the primer out and work it into my skin. Otherwise it’s too thick and it feels a little sticky and weird, almost like a non bubbly foam (it’s the best I can do for this description, haha).

I’ve been dying for so long to try the Milk Makeup Blur Stick, so it was perfect that this set included a small one! I feel like the beauty world has mixed feelings about this product. For one it works really great for blurring out pores and for others it does absolutely nothing.

I swatches it on my hand and in that case I became part of the latter. Nothing was visible. My hand did feel really smooth, but there was nothing to see. On my face it is actually the same: I can’t see any product showing up. I did see that my pores were blurred out a little bit but nothing extreme.

I like how easy this product is to use: you just grab the stick and apply the products, without needing to use a brush or your fingers. So that’s a plus. Also, the product makes my skin feel smooth and easy to apply make-up on top. Even though it did blur my pores a little bit, I do think that Benefit Porefessional (for instance) does a way better job at blurring pores so I would choose that over the Milk Blur Stick. I will continu using the Milk Blur Stick though, but I won’t be purchasing it again.

The Hourglass Mineral Primer Veil is a really popular primer out there. I love that this deluxe size has a little pump so it won’t get too messy. I found that this product really needs a pump because this primer is so extremely watery that it goes everywhere, even with a pump. So without a pump I guess it would just get out of the tube on it’s own.

The product is white but when you apply it on the face, the color is not visible anymore and it’s a neutral shade (unless you apply too much so be cautious).

It’s amazing how this product feels on the skin. When applying it, it feels like liquid silk. It makes my skin really soft and a bit smoothened. It also fills in my pores. Even though you wouldn’t see a difference from day and night when you are or aren’t wearing this primer, I do like the subtle way it makes my skin and make-up more smooth.

The Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water is both for priming and setting. It is a clear spray with a light perfume scent. The first time I ever saw this I was thinking that it’s nothing more than scented water. I never tried it before and I heard awesome things about it, so I really wanted to try it out anyway.

The primer water is indeed really refreshing for before, during and after doing your make-up but I don’t feel like it is actually setting my make-up for the whole day like the Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray is doing.

This Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water is really nice though to use after applying a powder product on your face. That’s actually the only thing I use the primer water for, because it melts the powder together with my other make-up without locking it all really tight.

I am also not the biggest fan of using this as a primer, because I don’t have the feeling that it actually boosts my skin. For that, I love the Tarte spray that I will be discussing shortly, way better!

So yeah, I consider the Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Water nice to have but definitely not necessary. I do have to admit that I am very interested in the collab with Nicol Concilio & Smashbox: they launched three scented Primer Waters (coconut, watermelon & cucumber and citrus) and that is something I would love to throw in my bag for a refreshing spritz during the day…

The Tarte Rainforest of the Seas Marine Boosting Mist is something I love to prime and refresh my face with. It really soothes my face when I apply it, so it’s perfect for when my skin is a bit sensitive and red. I truly believe that this mist does good to my skin and it feels really refreshing. The scent is nice and fresh, just the tiniest bit to strong (I just hold my breath until the strong scent is gone).

This mist is supposedly also meant for setting make-up, but I don’t really like this mist for that, because I don’t feel like it locks my make-up into place. I like it more for taking care of my skin, giving it a little boost in the morning and to refresh my face throughout the day.

A con of this spray though, is the horrible ‘button’ to spray the product out. The mist itself is great (fine + not too strong and not too weak) but it takes me a few tries to get something out of the bottle. It might just be a faulty bottle because the small bottle I finished was really easy to use.

The Cover FX Illuminating Setting Spray was something I didn’t necessarily wanted to use but I did read a lot of good things about it. Besides the Highlighter Drops I never got into Cover FX products so this was completely new for me.

This setting spray is supposed to give you an all over healthy glow and let me tell you: it does! The illuminating part is really subtle to but it actually adds something to my look. I usually wear a matte primer, matte concealer and matte powder, so a illuminating spray is a welcome addition.

I really enjoy using this setting spray because it makes all of my make-up look more alive and a bit brighter. It does take a lot of sprays before my whole face is covered because the mist is really really fine. I doesn’t lock my make-up into place as well as my Urban Decay setting spray though, so when I have a really long and/or intensive day ahead I’ll go for Urban Decay.

Last but not least is the Laura Mercier Translucent Setting Powder. I tried it for the first time when I just go back from the USA. I got a mini sized setting powder as a Sephora Beauty Insiders reward. I love love the powder!

It easy to apply, has a nice neutral shade, blur the skin beautifully and locks my concealer perfectly into place. The small pot ran out really quickly so I am happy to see that this set includes a nice deluxe sized Translucent Setting Powder so I can continu using it!

Out of the four primers in this set, I like this Hourglass one the most. I am not crazy about the scent though but it’s not overwhelming, so I can live with it. However, a full size Mineral Primer Veil is really expensive ($54 for 1 oz) and I also love my Benefit Porefessional Primer a lot ($31 for 0.75 oz), so I’m not sure if I will rebuy the Hourglass one.

For sprays I have to say that I love the Tarte one the most for priming and refreshing and the Cover FX Illuminating Setting Spray the most as a finish spray.

For powders I only have one option to choose from but I love the Laura Mercier Translucent Powder! The Rimmel London Match Perfection Silky Loose Powder is a perfect budget replacement but I like the Laura Mercier Translucent Powder just as much, so I am happy with both :).